Our friends at the Associated Press are reporting that the ABC television show “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” will be helping a soldier severely wounded in the Nov. 5, 2009, Fort Hood shooting. Staff Sgt. Patrick Zeigler returned home from Iraq two weeks prior to the shooting. He was preparing to attend Officer Candidate School when he was hit four times in the attack. He suffered a nearly fatal wound to his head, according to the report. A bullet shattered the right side of his skull. The metal and bone fragments were too small to be removed, so doctors had to…

Pfc. David “Smiley” Lawrence, the soldier accused of murdering a shackled Taliban commander, nodded off several times during a hearing that will determine if the Army puts him on trial. His attorney says the 20-year-old Fort Carson, Colo., GI is strung out on drugs to battle schizophrenia and isn’t mentally fit to stand trial. Lawrence’s platoon sergeant testified Lawrence announced he would, “do something in the next 20 minutes that you are too pussy to do.” “He said, ‘I killed him,'” Staff Sgt. Dominic Buscemi, testified. “I said, ‘Killed who?’ and he said, ‘The guy in the cell.'” [via The…

The father of a 101st CAB staff sergeant found with a gunshot wound to the head is filled with questions about his son’s death, but Army CID released few details and about the case and declined to provide a time frame for more answers. David Senft, 27, was found dead in a vehicle on Kandahar Airfield on Nov. 15 in a “non-combat incident.” The father is baffled why his son would commit suicide; he had been treated after previous suicide attempts, but he was just married, was recently promoted and loved his five-year-old son. Senft, a crew member of Lt.…

Keeping it real went wrong for a Fort Carson, Colo., civilian resident now charged with shooting workers at a Burger King on post and a Cricket in town during two robberies. Joshua Bodean Smith, 20, reportedly told the clerk at the Cricket, “I ain’t playin’,” before shooting him in the shoulder and emptying the cash register. He faces federal charges and up to 30 years in jail. The Army was holding Smith’s girlfriend, identified as Pfc. Bianca M. Soto, who federal authorities say acted as Smith’s getaway driver. [via Colorado Springs Gazette] A Colorado jury convicted former soldier Marcus Hightower,…

A 41-year-old soldier from Fort Riley, Kan., faces charges in Connecticut that he sexually assaulted the 13-year-old daughter of a friend. He had arranged to meet the girl on Facebook, picked her up at her father’s house and took her to a motel. The girl’s mother found a message from her daughter worrying she was pregnant, and a reply from the soldier, worrying he’d go to jail. [via Metro Source News/KSAL-Radio] An Alabama jury watched a videotaped confession of a homeless, Iraq vet with mental health issues who kidnapped, robbed and murdered an 18-year-old Auburn University freshman. In his chilling…

A 44-year-old Anchorage veteran charged in a series of rapes was sentenced to five years in connection with an assault on a woman at a grocery store in 2006. The vet, already in jail, faces 12 more charges. [via Anchorage Daily News] Jury selection continues in the Alabama trial of a 26-year-old Iraq War vet who kidnapped, robbed and shot an 18-year-old Auburn University freshman in 2008. Defense attorneys questioned potential jurors about their views on the military and PTSD, possibly preparing for an insanity defense. The defendant, who served three years in Korea and Iraq before a discharge over…